Game on! At New Hampshire's museum of classic arcade games, a product of the 80s finds bliss

Sunday

Mar 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM

One could argue that The American Classic Arcade Museum, located just off the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in Laconia, New Hampshire, is a lot more "arcade" than "museum."

Don Hammontree

One could argue that The American Classic Arcade Museum, located just off the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in Laconia, New Hampshire, is a lot more "arcade" than "museum."

Sure, there are display cases full of old video-game artifacts — a Pac-Man Christmas album; an honest-to-God Magnavox Odyssey 2 system; Atari's latest offering(!), the Flashback 3 game console — and placards outlining the history of classic staples like Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pole Position 2. But the Museum of Fine Arts this ain't.

Which is fine with me. I'd rather hang around ACAM than Huntington Avenue any day. The MFA may have a Monet or two, but ACAM has "Dig-Dug" — no contest!

Located on the third level of a sprawling amusement center known as Funspot (certified by the Guinness Book folks as the largest arcade in the world), ACAM bills itself as a "working, interactive" museum where the public can actually play the historical games on display (for a token, of course). It's been the setting for several prominent gaming tournaments, conventions and workshops that attract participants from all over the world, and was featured in the critically acclaimed 2007 indie documentary "The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters," which focuses on two longtime Donkey Kong freaks pitched in a battle to achieve the game's all-time high score.

I discover rather quickly that ACAM is the ultimate time portal for anyone who was between the ages of eight and 18 in the early 1980s. A walk among the 250 vintage video games and pinball machines feels like a reunion of long-lost friends I'd forgotten about or given up for dead. If you'd thrown in massive amounts of cigarette smoke, plus the mean older kids who threatened to beat me up if I didn't hand over my tokens, I would've been absolutely convinced I'd been teleported back to 1982. The "Hi-Infidelty"-era REO Speedwagon tune blaring in the background adds a nice touch as well.

Accompanying me on this trip is my 14-year-old daughter Lili, an Xbox-generation gamer who is playing her "old-school" Nintendo DS with authority during the drive to Laconia. Once we enter ACAM, she trails behind me bemused through the aisles of ancient machines as I make one surprise discovery after another.

"OH MY GOD!!! IT'S GORF!!!"

"NO WAY!!! WIZARD OF WOR!!!"

"LOOK AT THIS!!! STAR CASTLE!!!"

Perhaps to her, the ACAM experience seems a bit more museum-like. Pac-Man, after all, was introduced to the world 17 years before she was. My droning on and on nostalgically about every other game ("OMG!!! This one was at the laundromat down the street! OMG!!! This one was at the taco place next to where I got my hair cut!") I come across probably doesn't help. Having grown up in the age of sharp, 3-D visuals and furious action, Lili finds the simple, blocky graphics of ancient stand-bys like Super Breakout and Night Driver appalling. And when I introduce her to Pong, the granddaddy of them all, her reaction is a simple, particularly underwhelmed, "Really?"

She is, however, enthused by the arcade versions of the Mario Bros. games she grew up playing on home-based systems. And when I introduce her to Donkey Kong, Nintendo's pioneer flagship, she's impressed that I somehow recall, after some twentysomething years, the pattern that usually carried me to at least the third level, and that I'm better than her at it.

Lili, however, is pretty skilled at her Mario family games — she's still on her first token after I've burnt through five. I'm discovering that while I can still score decently on classics like Gyruss, Tempest (my all-time fave), Elevator Action and Rally-X, my abilities on other games has suffered dramatically. My try at Donkey Kong Junior is a horror show. My Asteroids performance is pathetic. And we won't even get into my turn at Super Zaxxon, which lasts approximately 35 seconds.

"Wow," says Lili, observing. "Epic fail."

I expect her to eventually lose interest in the old-school machines and wander over to some of Funspot's other attractions — modern video games (the Daytona USA driving games are particularly popular), Skeeball, and air hockey (there's also a bowling alley) — she tells me she prefers these "old-school" games. I'm touched, and feel a video-based father-and-daughter bonding here in the vast complex of joysticks, beeping sounds and vector screens.

I'm ready to play one more round of Tempest when I realize we've run out of time, I'm due to perform music in Manchester (an hour south) in less than an hour and a half. As we hurriedly head for ACAM's parking lot, I think of all the games I never got around to playing — Pengo, Mr. Do, Cheeky Mouse, Red Baron, Burgertime. But I don't despair — after this visit, I know I will return soon.

I mean, how could one not?

The American Classic Arcade Museum is located at Funspot, 579 Endicott Street North, in Laconia, N.H. For more information, click onto ACAM's Web site at www.classicarcademuseum.com or call (603) 366-4377.